Algy knew that very soon – perhaps within minutes – another battering shower of hail or sleet would sweep in from the ocean, and the world would turn dark grey again. But just for the moment it was dry and wonderfully bright, so Algy slid down the soft bank of sand and tucked himself in by the edge of the burn that ran across the beach to the sea. As he smiled at the golden sunshine, he thought of all his friends around the world who were deep in snow and suffering freezing temperatures, and he remembered a poem which he dedicates especially to his friends in the eastern parts of North America and in Scandinavia:

          The frosty sky, like a furnace burning,
          The keen air, crisp and cold,
          And a sunset that splashes the clouds with gold
          But my heart to summer turning.

          Come back, sweet summer! Come back again!
          I hate the snow,
          And the icy winds that the north lands blow,
          And the fall of the frozen rain.

          I hate the iron ground,
          And the Christmas roses,
          And the sickly day that dies when it closes,
          With never a song or a sound.

          Come back! Come back! with your passionate heat
          And glowing hazes,
          And your sun that shines as a lover gazes,
          And your day with the tired feet.

[ Algy is quoting the poem A Winter Sunset by the 19th century English author Lord Alfred Douglas. ]

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